NewYear NewProblems 11: Last Mystery for Ichijouji
by Jlgjt
Summary: The 11th and final story in the series, covers Ken. Two parts, both uploaded. Some concepts covered here will be used in future stories. Enjoy! :
1. Part 1

2004 – New Year, New Problems

Story #11: One Last Mystery for Ichijouji

Author's Notes: This story covers Ken and is the last in this particular series. What is explored here will largely be picked up in future story arcs, but for the moment what will happen is for me to know and you to find out:-) Flashback/remembrance sequences are written in italics. Enjoy!

Date: 1/4/2004

Time: 2:00 pm

Place: Ichijouji residence, Ken's room

It was simply unbelievable. Even after 5 days, it was still unbelievable how that battle had went down...

Ken Ichijouji simply stared at the floor in a semi-depressed state. He knew he should have been happy after that great victory over MaloMyotismon, but the very fact that it was an old foe the first Digidestined they thought defeated that had depressed him...

He rubbed the back of his neck... where the Dark Spore was, or had been. The Spore had been his bane, not the blessing he might have thought of it, and to know that it had victimized others besides himself broke him down.

All he wanted to ask was "Why me?" and "Why Myotismon, out of all the Digimon it could have been?!?". He had spent most of the first two days after the battle, physically and mentally drained, either weeping into his pillow or in half-controlled fits of rage, where he would throw various knickknacks around in an effort to release a seemingly limitless anger within him. Now, fate was not only being capricious with him, but mocking his genuine efforts to recover what he had lost during the madness that characterized his days as the "Digimon Emperor"...

Myotismon had not only taken advantage of the Spore that fate had cursed him with to capture him, but used it to push him into being the "Digimon Emperor". "I could've lost everything, even my life! Why did you do this to me?!!?" was what Ken wanted to yell at him, but he knew it would be of no effect. Myotismon was gone for good, but the trauma was so great Ken wasn't sure he would ever recover completely.

The craziness of that link... every time he heard about Myotismon, it was always as something denigrating, particularly when it came from Gatomon. Before, it was just stories from 4 years ago, but now, it was more real than Ken could bear to think about... and it was ripping him apart from the inside out.

During those two days, when Ken felt as though his heart had been ripped out of him, he received much comfort from his parents as well as Wormmon, but there was one Digimon he wanted to be with so badly: Gatomon. "She's the only one that can really understand, the only one who can really care." Ken thought.

Ken was also sure that everyone expected him to start coming closer to Kari because of Gatomon. "It's not just an expectation, I really want to be around her." Ken stated, because, even though Wormmon certainly meant well, hugging him just wasn't the same as hugging something soft and furry, something you know can provide you comfort, something you know will understand you, which is what Gatomon was, at least to him now.

After two days, though, Ken finally stood up and decided to do something other than sit around and cry himself a puddle of tears. He decided to pick up whatever he could of the fame that he lost and rebuild his public image. He didn't think this was wrong, as he still had the intellect and athletic skills "gifted" to him by the Spore, and he certainly didn't wanted them wasted just because they had been misused before.

Ken also knew that likely he would have to come clean in public about those days he was missing; it was fortunate that no one outside of the Digidestined knew about "the Emperor", or Ken would truly have been finished in terms of being a celebrity. It was uncomfortable having to hold that secret around inside him, but it was the best case scenario because it allowed Ken to discuss it on his timetable and on his terms, which would allow him to show how mad he had become during that time and how wrong the cruelty was.

Also, the battle hadn't exonerated him completely of the stigma of having once been the "Digimon Emperor". Yes, he was a cruelly misused tool that Myotismon used, but you can't excuse the tool for doing something just because someone used it. Ken sighed heavily; this probably wouldn't go away until he could go public honestly and truthfully about it...

He also may have thought his whole attempt to rebuild what image he had left would have been in vain had it not been for a certain phone call made by Cody to him and Kari yesterday. Going over to do kendo with Cody's grandpa seemed somewhat bizarre at first, but it became therapeutic as it allowed Ken an outlet for his anger through kendo practice, and also allowed him to meet Gatomon again, the first time since the battle.

Other things had happened that time too. Being with Kari made Ken feel much better about himself, whether he laughed with her or sparred with her in kendo; he was sure that it was the beginning of something that could be very important in this new year 2004. Also, seeing Cody so sorry for the doubt, broken as he was, showed a sincerity and an honesty that Ken thought may not have been possible for him.

Wormmon had also told him that, while he was talking with Gatomon in the corner (when Kari had her first practice run), that she had compared him to Wizardmon, which was for her the highest complement she could give. Seeing Wormmon's bright eyes, Ken realized that Gatomon was absolutely right in making that comparison, and he also began to wonder if Wormmon's joy was the result of some form of admiration coming from either direction. Nothing could be known for sure, as he didn't know if Kari knew about the conversation.

But what Ken did know was that he could take a few pointers on how to be gracious from the feline Digimon, particularly after showing Cody that she had forgiven whatever hypocrisy she may have recognized. Seeing her hugging Cody, it was so touching, and made Ken think about how he could be like that. He would have to have time to learn, but he wanted to do it, and admittedly Gatomon was just fun to be around, which considering what she had been would be surprising to people...

Ken wished he could go over to the Kamiya apartment right now, talk to Kari and Gatomon, come to a place where they could work out the common sorrow together...

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"Ken, could you come here, please?" Ken heard his mom ask in a fairly loud voice.

"Hmm... wonder what Mom wants?" he thought worriedly as he got up and exited his room. He quickly walked out toward the living room, but caught something out of the corner of his eye, and turned...

"What in the world?!?" Ken thought as he saw what had caught his attention: apparently, part of the kitchen area was covered in a tangle of white, sticky threads! Furthermore, Mom had become stuck to one of the threads; that and the mess explained the attitude she now posed.

"Would you care to explain this?" she asked in a "be honest, mister!" tone of voice.

Ken thought for a moment, then winced as he realized what was going on. Over the last two days, he had told Wormmon that he should practice his "web-slinging skills", partly to make up for his still-present guilt of once treating him as almost nothing, during those mad Emperor days. But apparently Wormmon had done it in the wrong place, using the oven window as a target, and now had made a sticky mess with his practicing.

Ken glanced around to see where Wormmon would have gone, and a hunch lead him to open a cabinet door. Staring out from inside the cabinet was a guilty-looking Wormmon.

Ken sighed in exasperation and said, "When I said to go practice your web-slinging skills, I meant for you to take it outside!"

"But it's too cold outside to practice!" Wormmon pleaded.

Ken sighed again, pulled Wormmon out of the cabinet, then put him down on the floor. Wormmon watched guiltily as Ken went to unstick his mom from the sticky web that covered part of the kitchen area.

"Now, I hope Wormmon can get this stuff off of the walls and appliances so that I can make dinner tonight!" Mom said after she got unstuck. She made up a bucket of soapy water and got out two scrub brushes, which she handed to Ken. "Now Ken, please help your friend clean up the mess he made." Mom stated as she set the bucket of water near the stringy mess.

Ken sighed as he committed himself to having to clean up the sticky threads, and was about to give one of the scrub brushes to Wormmon when his mind suddenly flashed back to one of many incidents that occurred during his days as the "Digimon Emperor"...

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_"I told you to scrub the floor, so why aren't you scrubbing?!? Get to work, worm!" Ken the Emperor said, tossing two scrub brushes, one at a time, at Wormmon's head._

_After recovering from being conked on the head twice, Wormmon complained, "But master, how do know when to stop?"_

_"You can stop when the hallway is so clean that you can see your pathetic reflection in it!" Emperor Ken yelled out._

_"But I can't even see the claws in front of my face, it's so dark!"_

_Emperor Ken sighed in exasperation, then snapped his fingers, brightening the dimly lit hallway. "Now get to work, slave!" he ordered, cracking the whip he carried around for emphasis. Sulking, he went off as Wormmon started scrubbing the floor..._

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Ken stared down at his hands, frozen in mid-air when the bad memory flashed through his mind. His face screwed into a grimace; he couldn't bring himself to get Wormmon to clean anything again, even if the Digimon made the mess himself.

Ken sighed as he realized the only alternative... He looked down at a guilty Wormmon with pained eyes and said to him, "Go on. You don't need to clean anything. I'll do everything." Wormmon looked at Ken with a confused gesture, then, suddenly pleased at being released from a kind of job he had been forced to perform many times, slowly crawled away.

As Ken got down on his knees, dipped a brush in the soapy water and began to scrub away the spider-web like mess of strings from the oven front, he realized that this could have been what he would have done for the rest of his life, if he hadn't been killed by vengeful Digimon first. "MaloMyotismon was right on one thing at least." Ken thought as he scrubbed, referencing the illusion the Digimon had given him during the New Year's Battle. "I deserved to be tied to a large pole, and a spectacle made out of my execution."

Ken occasionally came up with horrific possibilities for what would have happened had grace never been shown him: being captured by the Digidestined after he fell as the Emperor, being carried around by the victorious Digidestined in chains as a war trophy while Digimon jeered at him, forcing him to work as a menial servant while getting kicked around and beaten by the Digidestined, and finally... a revenge execution, just like MaloMyotismon had shown him. Ken knew that in any of those cases, cold hard justice would have been done, but he would very likely be dead or having fallen so far so as make recovery impossible. Yet, none of those things had happened... but why? What had intervened on his behalf to show grace and allow him to recover as far as he had, up until today?

Ken couldn't think about it now, because when he started thinking he stopped scrubbing, and he had a **lot **of scrubbing to do. So, putting the questions in the back of his mind for now, Ken set hid focus on the job at hand...

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Time: 3:30 pm

Place: Ken's room

It had been a long and tough job, but after much scrubbing he had finally gotten all the strings off the kitchen appliances. His arms hurt, so Ken just let them hang down outside the chair he was slumped into.

He was thinking again about what had happened that New Year's Eve. He knew he was a victim, controlled by a spore than he didn't even know was affecting him 2 weeks ago and made vulnerable to the evil Myotismon offered through Oikawa, and he knew Gatomon had been a victim too, those 4 years ago, but what about Oikawa?

To Ken, Oikawa was so desperate to see the Digital World that he didn't realize until too late that he had made a deal with one of the most self-seeking Digimon to have ever existed on either world. As a result, Ken and Oikawa himself, as well as the children that were infected by the spores, now joined Gatomon and many other victims on the "trail of tears" Myotismon had left, in all his forms, before finally being defeated forever. Ken figured that, like Gatomon, he would be scarred for life. And Oikawa now only exists as a guardian spirit in the Digiworld, both a blessing and a curse.

Nevertheless, he had won the tough victory. It was at a horrible cost, but Ken could finally feel free enough to reenter the public sphere without fear that "the Emperor" would be back to haunt him. And he had the friends he so desperately needed now: Wormmon, Davis, Veemon, Kari, Gatomon... However, looking over at the picture of Sam on his desk, Ken knew things could never be completely right, not with Sam gone.

Now Ken saw why he had seemed to wish Sam away as a result of the car accident... it was the Spore working within him, causing his demented wish to come true. Ken took the picture off his desk and pressed it gently to his chest, almost as if he was hugging Sam. He said through a tear, "Sam... I'm sorry. I really am. I know you got all the attention, and it made me just want you to go away. But... I didn't know about the Spore, and what it could do. I really didn't. And... I know words won't bring you back to me and Mom and Dad, but saying 'I'm sorry' is all I **can** do now. I hope you understand, Sam..."

Ken put the picture back, then slumped in the chair again. It was no use wishing it would all just be a bad dream he could wake up from, but also knew that, somewhere out there, maybe not far away, there was some guardian angel or spirit, something that would ensure him that everything would be all right from now on...

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Ken's mind suddenly flipped to the current problems faced by him and the other Digidestined. Oikawa was no longer living in the real world, but Ken was sure that many possessions had been left behind, including the electronic means through which Myotismon had worked to get into the digital world, including possibly something which was keeping the other Harmonious Ones locked in the prisons that they had been put in...

After being contacted by Izzy about it, Ken had asked his dad to look into any way that Oikawa's possessions could be legally taken by him or Cody, but dad had replied that until Oikawa was declared "legally dead" all his possessions could not be touched by anyone. According to his dad, Oikawa had locked the door to his apartment (taking the key with him) and left what appeared to be a suicide note ("Today, I fulfill my dream and go to a place that is not of this world!") tacked to the front door. Because of reluctance to pick or break the lock to enter the apartment, it was now left untouched, but unless Ken's dad found some legal way for one of the Digidestined to get Oikawa's possessions it was likely that everything might get taken by the government, and any records of activity or programs affecting the Digital World would get destroyed, causing complications that would become big problems later on.

However, even the importance of that problem was drowned out by something that had puzzled him for a couple months and now was coming into high focus: could there have been more to his redemption story than everyone else believed? Sure, the standard theory of "Wormmon + Davis + Arukenimon's appearance" seemed satisfying looking on the surface, but deep down Ken wasn't exactly sure if the theory was quite right...

Ken knew that if Arukenimon had not appeared, he wouldn't have been redeemed, that it would have been Davis vs. the other four without changing until Davis's faith was worn down, thus making the "official" theory reliant on the fact that there had been another enemy to face and that it pulled Ken into the fold. But looking now, Ken saw that there had to be something else, that part of the whole story about his redemption had still not been discovered because it was in the background, that it had been helped and drowned out itself by Arukenimon appearing.

The question was, what exactly was it and what role did it play? It was obvious that Davis's faith was a visible manifestation of something invisible, something that worked in conjunction with what else had happened to change hearts and minds but itself staying in the background. Ken thought it was likely an "agent of grace", some angel or spirit that had been summoned to work on his behalf by an unseen, naturally-developing, sympathy and that had worked in the background to bring Ken's redemption; that Ken was reasonably sure of.

But now the question was: Who, or what, was the "trigger" that had brought the spirit down to do whatever work it did? He had already excluded the "old Digidestined" who did not have direct participation in the battle as highly unlikely, leaving only Davis, Yolei, Cody, T.K. and Kari. For a while, he had been looking fruitlessly at those five as a possible list of "secret sympathizers", but with no real luck. Davis was only the instrument, not the source (as his initial sympathy was based on the fact that Ken's parents still cared for him and the concept that Ken was Digidestined, which was only later augmented by actual heart feelings) and the others couldn't have been the trigger as they had all doubted.

However, now Ken began to wonder if he had been approaching the problem the wrong way and that a **Digimon **had been the trigger instead of another Digidestined. Looking down the list, he had to first exclude Wormmon (he was important, but could not have been the trigger for something that worked to eliminate doubt in others as he did not have much influence on the others at that time), then continuing, Ken reluctantly eliminated Veemon, Hawkmon and Armadillomon, as they did not seem to be capable of expressing the emotion necessary to have been the trigger. That only left Patamon and Gatomon; both names seemed to feel right, and Gatomon seemed to jump out at him. Looking, it would have made sense... but before believing it, he would need something more concrete to go on than just hunches.

Indeed, Ken may have thought he was making the entire thing up, hadn't it been for a couple of dreams that had occasionally played in his mind in the middle of some nights. They had first appeared during the short but critical period between his first reappearance and Arukenimon revealing herself, and then occasionally reappearing afterwards, leaving Ken perplexed the following morning. He now figured that those dreams were another effect of his theory and were more obvious than any other presumed effect, allowing Ken to puzzle this "hidden element" of his redemption out via the dreams. Now, more determined than ever to prove this "pet theory", he began recalling the dreams...

**End of Part 1**


	2. Part 2

2004 – New Year, New Problems

Story #11: One Last Mystery for Ichijouji (Part 2)

In the first dream, Ken was seemingly alone, on top a large flat-roofed building. There was nothing but pitchblackness surrounding the building, and the only apparent illumination was some street-light like lamps attached to the side of the building. On top of the roof, what Ken then knew as "the mysterious lady" (later revealed to be Arukenimon) was advancing menacingly toward him, causing Ken in response to start backing, knowing he was heading for the edge...

"Hahaha. Why are you afraid of me? I am of the darkness, just as you are." the "lady" threatened.

Ken responded as bravely as he could with, "What are you talking about? I am not of the darkness, I am sorry for what I have done! Get away from me!"

"Oh, but Ken, you **are **of the darkness. It is so deeply embedded in you that it cannot leave. You have been marked with the darkness, and it will **never **leave you! Why do you think otherwise? It is foolishness."

Ken shouted in rage, "You're lying!! I want this curse gone from me, I want the Emperor gone, you hear me?!? I'm not him anymore, and I don't want to be him anymore! You understanding me?! I want you gone and out of my life, and your evil with you!"

"Oh, but Ken, I won't just go. Things have become too tightly knit, and there is the issue of getting what you deserve, which you will at the rate you are backing away from me."

Ken looked over his shoulder to see that she wasn't bluffing; he was only about 10 feet from the edge, from dropping into a black abyss. He decided to stand his ground, but still the "lady" kept coming towards him. Panicking, Ken suddenly noticed Davis and Veemon coming from the other side to attack her. Ken cried for their help but was dismayed when suddenly the other four kids involved (Yolei, Cody, T.K. and Kari) suddenly appeared and pushed Davis and Veemon back, saying that he deserved his fate and that he should be punished, before carrying Davis and Veemon out of sight. (Ken noted that the partner Digimon of Yolei and the other three pushing Davis away did **not **appear, a possibly important clue...)

Ken cried in despair, as the lady was rapidly closing on him. She laughed in evil anticipation of pushing Ken off and was almost within reach when suddenly a web-like net was shout at her from the side. Turning, Ken noticed that the attacker was Wormmon, who he rushed over to as the lady removed the sticky netting.

"Oh, boy, am I glad to see you!" Ken said as he pulled out his D-3, once the notorious "Dark Digivice". "Wormmon, I need you to Digivolve, now! Get the lady away from me!"

"But Ken, I can't Digivolve." Wormmon stated in a sorrowful voice.

"What?! What do you mean you can't Digivolve?!" Ken asked, now nearing a panic attack.

"I'll tell you why he can't Digivolve, Emperor boy!" the lady stated with a saucy attitude. "Look around and see if you recognize anything."

Ken looked up and around, hoping it wasn't a bluff, to find a heart-wrenching sight: Control Spires, outlined in a red glow against the blackness, were all around him! There seemed to be dozens, maybe even hundreds of outlined shapes; no wonder Wormmon could not Digivolve!

Ken panicked again and began to back from the renewed advances of the lady. Wormmon bravely leapt at her but was knocked aside, then hit with something that seemed to knock the Digimon out. Ken cried for his Digimon friend, but it was no use. "Haha. You have nowhere to run, Emperor, no one left to help you! Now either accept your position as the Emperor of the Digital World or prepare to face your destruction!"

Ken screamed out, "NEVER! I WILL NEVER GO BACK! I do not take rules from anyone, least of all you! Get away from me!" Bold words to be sure, but Ken was again nearing the edge, and if he wasn't careful he would go over by not watching where he stepped.

The evil lady chuckled again as Ken continued to cautiously back away. Eventually, Ken looked back to see that he was just inches from the abyss-like drop! He froze in place, but the women kept coming. When she was close enough, she tried to grab his shirt. He flinched away, but in doing so nearly put one foot off the edge and sending him tumbling. Ken was thrown off balance and his arms flailed around as he tried to avoid falling. The women grabbed him and leaned straight into his sweaty face. She then said, "I am the only thing now standing between you and your final doom. If you come with me now, I will make sure you will never have to experience that horrible tragedy again."

Ken looked back and forth between the woman's offer and the endless drop which he would take if she let go of him. He knew that what she was offering was a return to evil, something which he refused to do considering how repulsive it felt to him. He scowled at the lady.

She sighed and then said "Very well. I have offered you a chance to avoid it, but you have now brought your own judgment. Farewell, Ken Ichijouji, the Digimon Emperor that never will be!" She let go and pushed him away as well.

He went over. Tumbling head over heels, the side of the building, vaguely recognizable in the dim light, flew by him, and from somewhere above he faintly heard someone (possibly Wormmon) call out to him in despair, while Ken himself screamed in mortal fear of the seemingly endless freefall. He also heard the lady laughing above him, gloating over pushing him into condemnation...

Turning so that Ken could see what was below him, he found to his horror that he was headed for a pit of darkness very similar to the one Devimon had been in, that it would swallow him up and destroy him – his punishment!! The scream stuck in his throat, then changed to a despairing loud whimpering as he sped down toward the black hole of his punishment... Ken tried to look away, hoping it wasn't happening, but as the pit loomed larger and larger, Ken was more convinced that this was real.

Suddenly, Ken felt his left arm be grabbed by something, and the fall stopped with a jolt. Ken was now dangling in mid-air, with the only thing preventing him from going into that dark circle was whatever grabbed him. Ken immediately looked up to find he could still see a faint silhouette of what had grabbed him. He couldn't make out many details, but from what he could see, he guessed that it was an angel (somewhat surprisingly, and perhaps another clue to the meaning of the dream) that had arrested his fall!

Ken asked who it was and why it had intervened to stop his fall. The angel responded with an echoing voice, saying, "I am only someone who wants to help, someone who still cares about you. There are still those that care about what happens to you, and I am one of them. That's why I have done what I have done: to stop you from falling further than you already have."

Ken was naturally comforted, but looking down at the black pit below, he was mortally scared. He cringed, pulling up his dangling legs and saying, "Ahh! I'm scared! What if you lose your grip?!? I don't want to fall again!"

The angel (or whatever it was) reassured Ken: "Don't worry, I won't let you go. There are too many who care about you, myself included, to make me give up hope." Ken then saw vaguely another hand reaching down towards him. He raised up his right hand, and the angel now took that too. Ken was now dangling by his arms, holding on to whatever angel or other being had cared enough to catch him from falling.

Suddenly, Ken heard Davis's voice from above: "Ken... KEN!! Where are you?!? Can you hear me, Ken?!!?"

Relieved but perplexed, Ken shouted up that he was down there. He saw Davis look down over the building edge in confusion. He was then quickly joined by something green (probably Wormmon) and something else blue (probably Veemon), who were apparently just as confused as Davis was.

"What happened?!?" Davis yelled down. "Why didn't you enter that black pit or be killed by the fall? What stopped you from doing those things?"

"I don't know. Something caught me, but I don't know what or who." Ken yelled back up.

"Well, what's more important right now is that we get you back up here. Wormmon will send down a rope while Veemon and I anchor him. You need to grab on and climb back up. Understand?"

Ken yelled up an acknowledgment, and shortly afterwards a slender white rope made of Wormmon's threads dangled down by where Ken was hanging on to the merciful benefactor. He looked back and forth between the angel and the rope, not sure if he should reach out and take the rope.

"Do not worry." the angel reassured. "They will not let you fall purposely, and their grip on Wormmon and his lifeline is as strong as they can make it. Also, I will catch you if the rope breaks or you slip, I can promise you that." Ken considered for a moment, then with as much courage as he could muster released his right hand from the grip he had on it and reached over for the rope. He managed to get a good grip on it, then hooked his right leg over it as well. Ken looked up to see Wormmon being held on to by Davis and Veemon, then at the benefactor, who reassured him again.

Further encouraged, Ken released the grip on his left hand and quickly grabbed on to the rope. As he hooked his left leg on as well, Ken now saw that he was hanging from the rope, just like in gym class. He had excelled at the rope exercise then, but now he was scared stiff and his hands sweated into the thread rope. Therefore Ken was further relieved when the benefactor shifted mid-air position to beside Ken, encircling the arms that had stopped the fall around his waist. It was obvious that the benefactor was going to prevent Ken from falling again should his grip give way, and also Ken got a better impression that the hard-to-see shape was indeed angelic. Slowly and carefully Ken began to climb back up the rope, propelled both by fear of what was below and amazement at those that had offered him a way back up. As Ken moved back up, so did the benefactor, adjusting position so that Ken would still be caught if he lost the grip.

Eventually, Ken got close enough to Davis and Veemon that they partly released their grip on Wormmon and reached down to pull him the rest of the way. Together, they helped Ken over the lip, and once far enough away from the edge, Ken collapsed into a heap, still shaking from the shock but relieved that he was even alive.

With Davis's help, Ken shakily got to his feet again. He reached down and gave a bear hug to Wormmon, which he took graciously. Davis then asked Ken "What happened down there? You went over, and I couldn't help... I thought you were a goner! What grabbed you?"

Ken looked in confusion. "I... don't know. I really don't. I'm just grateful that it saved me." Ken looked around and back down over the edge, but the angelic benefactor was nowhere to be seen...

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It was at this point that Ken woke up and pondered what the dream had meant. He was pretty sure it was some kind of allegory based on what had happened to him: the fall, being pulled up by Wormmon and Davis. But the benefactor couldn't be explained by anything he knew about, and that seemed to indicate the "agent of grace" that was missing from the redemption equation.

He had had another dream like that one as well. In that one, a scenario similar to that in the other dream had played out, except he had been on a cliff by the sea and "the lady"/Arukenimon had pushed him into the water. Even though in real life he was an excellent swimmer, in the dream all he did was flail about in the water while the lady laughed at him. Eventually he went under, and slowly sunk into a sea which looked alarmingly like the Dark Ocean, the dimension where he had been first turned to evil after the Myotismon-controlled Oikawa sent an email telling him "to use Sam's Digivice", which sent him there, apparently due to the Spore.

However, what was more important in what was being considered right now was that Ken had been saved in that dream too: Drowning and rapidly losing consciousness, something that looked like an angel (but could not be identified exactly due to the front being in deep shadow) had burst down into the water surrounded by bright lights, and just before losing all sensation the angel had grabbed his hand and began to pull him up out of the water.

The dream suddenly flipped to Ken laying on his back, looking up at the sky. He saw Davis, Veemon and Wormmon looking down worriedly at him. He wrenched and sat up as he began to cough violently, quickly expelling some seawater from his lungs before laying again on his back, breathing hard and completely drained of energy.

"Ken, we saw you get pushed in but we were too far away to help you." Davis explained. "Who pulled you up out of the water? We found you laying on your back completely soaked and it looked like you might have drowned, but now you just came to and coughed up some seawater. Who was there to prevent you from being shark food?"

Ken sat up, looking as confused as Davis was. His head ached, and both his clothes and hair were dripping wet with seawater. Slowly walking to the edge and looking over the sea below, Ken couldn't see anything that would even tell were the rescuer had been. He looked back at Davis and said, "I don't know. I don't even see where it went. But I would be drowned and dead had it not pulled me out of the sea..."

That dream ended there, and Ken was sure that both dreams were roughly parallel allegories of his situation, and both with explainable (Davis, Veemon, Wormmon) and unexplainable (the rescuing angel) elements, supporting his theory of an "agent of grace" adding to his redemption story.

However, the question of who it was still remained. Ken had an idea, but again he needed something more than hunches to go on. Ken figured that maybe the third dream he had might be able to give some insight into answering that question, so he began to recall that dream...

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In this dream, Ken was stumbling into a ruined temple of some kind. The sky outside was a very dark gray, and it seemed it was going to start pouring rain any minute now. Ken himself was caked and besmeared with dirt, and his face was very dirty, making it a dark brownish color.

The dirty Ken stumbled into the ruined temple so weak that he wobbled around and barely maintained his balance. He had apparently been walking a long time, and was so tired and dirty that he couldn't stay on his feet any longer. He collapsed on all fours in front of some kind of mural.

Ken was exhausted, but managed to raise his head up long enough to look at the mural. He could only recognize vague shapes, but figured out that the mural seemed to be divided into four parts according to a compass rose and that there seemed to be a Digimon drawn at the end of each compass point. This seemed to indicate one thing: this mural depicted the four Harmonious Ones guarding their respective sectors of the Digital World, and this ruin had been a temple to them.

Ken knew about what had happened to the Harmonious Ones, how they had been captured and imprisoned during the first days he was the Digimon Emperor by a force even he did not know, and knew what he had to do. He immediately threw himself completely flat on the floor, weeping bitterly and pleading for mercy from the Digimon that the mural depicted, wishing he could find a way to release them from their prisons.

He was still weeping and pleading when Ken suddenly felt a drop of water splash on his head, then another. Ken looked up, thinking it to be from a leaky roof. However, he was wrong...

When he looked up, he did indeed find a hole in the roof, but as clouded as the sky was it was not raining and thus dripping on his head. Instead, Ken heard something like sobbing above and then another drop of water fell on his face. Ken carefully wiped the drop off, then felt another one drip on his face. Ken looked up again, and as more drops fell he realized that the drops were actually tears – tears of sympathy – that were dripping off the faces of whatever was above.

Looking more closely, Ken could make out two silhouettes, maybe Digimon, but before he could analyze them further rain started pouring down through the hole above him, the rainwater joining the tears of the Digimon above. Ken watched in amazement as the rain slowly started washing the dirt off his hands, arms, legs, even his face (already streaked with the teardrops).

As Ken stared up at the rain washing him clean, he felt someone put an arm over his shoulder. Ken turned to see Davis and Veemon standing behind him, offering hand shakes of friendship. Davis said with a smile, "The rain of grace has made you clean, now all you need is a friend to help make up for what you've done. So what do you say, Ken? Can we set things right?"

Ken turned around, got up and shook hands with Davis, then Veemon. "Yes, you're right. Let's go!" Ken said as the three of them started out of the temple, into a sweet smelling, delicious rainshower...

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Ken looked around his room. He knew that this dream seemed to indicate an "agent of grace" more clearly than the other two, and was also metaphoric in that it showed Davis helping restore him, but he still had no idea about the trigger, so Ken reluctantly went back to his list...

"Patamon...? Gatomon...?? It would make sense, but..." Ken said to himself. "I can't believe it without more proof. I need more proof..." Ken was also thinking of the consequences of where this train of thought lead. The social network was already shaken now, and if this was shown to be true it would lead to effects so far reaching that no one would escape unaffected.

This is why Ken had not said anything about the dreams and his theory yet, because of the fact that he had no hard proof of anything. Now it was a new year, and things were closer between him and the potential triggers of the agent of grace than ever, but he still had no hard proof. "How would I get the proof? How would I get proof?..." Ken pondered.

Then it struck him. "Of course, why didn't I think of it before?!?" Ken exclaimed, his face brightening. He would become a detective! It fit him perfectly: he could put his brainpower to work in a productive manner, his athletic skills would come in handy for investigative work, he could have Wormmon as a partner and backup, and he even had a "case" to solve! Ken could also recruit other Digidestined into his detective agency: Kari, Izzy, T.K., maybe even Davis and Yolei!

Of course, he could not recruit without some other case than searching for the "agent of grace" on his slatelist. He would wait until he had another case, then recruit Kari and Gatomon and probably others as partner detectives. It would allow him to work on finding the agent of grace as well as the other case by allowing Gatomon and those he picked to be open with him, revealing things that wouldn't be shown otherwise...

Ken nodded to himself. He would be like the boy detectives he had seen from reading some American books. It was the perfect way to redeem his spore-given talents, and allow him to discern the truth about the "agent of grace". Also, even if the agent didn't exist, he could still receive comfort through simply sharing experiences with Gatomon and Kari, something for the edification of both them.

Ken excitedly leapt to his feet. "Forget about the evil that came from my talents, today I will use them only for good, and to find out this last mystery about how I was saved by grace..." Ken said to himself, smiling as he went off to tell Wormmon his plan...

**The End**


End file.
